By: Morgan Gerlach
Today and for many centuries, we have known Eve as Adam’s lesser half, the originator of sin. The perpetrator of the crime of knowledge. We see her as a woman who was tempted by the devil, for which all humanity (especially women) pay the price for today. The views on Eve and her actions vary based on what religion you are, especially within the sects on Christianity. Milton, in Paradise Lost, puts his own takes on Christian tellings, and Eve is no different. Milton shows her as beautiful, but lesser than Adam. Surprisingly, she is not the docile companion that was intended for him, being of his flesh. She resists her initial commands from both him and a voice presumed to be sent by God to seek Adam and love him. She again resists Adam in his suggestion that they work together. This Eve that we see is more active in her own story, more so than we usually see. From this, we can see two new sides of Eve: one that is potentially queer (in the sense that she feels attraction to women) and one that rebels against the path set for her, instead of the girl who is pulled away from it.
The beginning of Eve’s story clearly reflects that of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection. While that story is one to warn against narcissism, it is also the story of a beautiful man who falls in love with another beautiful man (ignoring the lovely nymph that loves him) without knowing that the other man is himself. Eve, too is enraptured with her reflection, and feels love for it. When she is taken away from the woman of her reflection, she finds Adam disappointing and is less attracted to him than the woman he saw.
Aside from Eve potentially being the first queer woman, she is the first human to resist the powers that be. This begins with her telling her story before Adam, and continues on to resist efforts to make her stay with him, not listen to Adam’s urges, and disobey the one rule given to them in the Garden of Eden.
More on Eve as a rebellious figure
While this is interesting to speculate on and consider, please note that this is based on Milton’s Paradise Lost and is in no way attempting to insinuate anything about the canonical Catholic literature. I am also not proposing that Milton wrote a feminist Eve, due to the many misogynistic statements made throughout.